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AFC North Salary Cap Figures for start of free agency

BENGALS: Cincinnati has the most salary-cap room of any team in the NFL. The Bengals are an estimated $48.5 million under the cap, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. The only thing holding the Bengals back in free agency is their history of not being a free-spending team. "For whatever reason, people beat us up," Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said at the NFL combine. "Tell me what aggressive free agency the Pittsburgh Steelers or Baltimore Ravens have had? Yet Pittsburgh has been in how many Super Bowls in the same time frame? You win by developing your own players and not overpaying for a guy you’re not sure how he’s going to work out until six, eight, 10 games down the road, and maybe not then. That’s what’s been proven. There have been very few guys that have done that and it’s worked out to be productive."

BROWNS: Cleveland has the second-most cap room in the division. The Browns have roughly $21 million in cap space, according to the Akron Beacon Journal. “We’re not going to go crazy in free agency. We’re not going to do it," Browns general manager Tom Heckert told Cleveland reporters last week. “You look throughout history. I know Green Bay didn’t sign one free agent when they won two years ago. I don’t think the Giants signed anybody, or at least anybody you’ve ever heard of, as a free agent. You don’t win football games by signing a bunch of free agents. You just don’t.”

RAVENS: Baltimore is now $10 million under the salary cap after giving out tenders to its restricted free agents, according to the Carroll County (Md.) Times. "We already have a strategy in place that will allow us to have the ability to sign players that we want to sign," general manager Ozzie Newsome said at the NFL combine. "We have a plan in place.”

STEELERS: Pittsburgh has the smallest amount of cap space in the division. The Steelers had an estimated $10 million in cap room, but that's before they allocated $9 million to six restricted free agents, according to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "During the uncapped season, we ran over the cap," general manager Kevin Colbert said at the NFL combine. "I think we weren't the only team to do that. We knew there could be consequences somewhere down the road for doing that. Obviously, there are. We expected to be where we are right now. This isn't a surprise. We'll continue to deal with it."